Men Made of Dirt
Loud knocks come rapping on Jacobs door late in the evening. He stands up and walks over to the door. Another series of knocks come. “Open up,” he hears a voice say. Taking a deep breath, he opens the door. There, standing in front of him, is Sturmbannfuhrer Viktor Fritzmann. Both men look at each other for a moment before Jacob invites the Sturmbannfuhrer in. Outside his little house he sees a vehicle with five soldiers standing around it. He looks back at his guest. “What do I owe the pleasure of your company tonight?” he finally says. “We had several units sent out this way, rounding up resistance and what not, and they haven’t reported back. We sent out a unit looking for them. They have not returned either. Last known whereabouts of the last unit was in this area. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” He searches Jacobs face with his eyes, looking for some hint. “No one comes through here. You are the first,” he says to him. “You deflect my question,” Viktor says calmly. “Have you seen my missing unit? Last known report from them was in this area. Have you seen any activity in this area?” “No,” Jacob replies. “No one has come through here. I have not noticed any activity around here. There is only myself out here. Well, myself and you now. That is all.” Viktor eyes him quizzically. “Then you wouldn’t mind if my men have a look around, would you?” “Do as you wish, sir. I’m sure you would have done it with or without asking anyway,” Jacob answers. Viktor gives a slight chuckle as he goes to the door and motions his men outside to begin searching. He then looks around the room Jacob is in. It is a small, one room house with a table just to the left of the door, a bed at the far wall across the door, and a wood heater and stove to the right of the door. Nothing else he can see. He looks at Jacob with a smile. “You live alone?” Viktor asks. “Yes. Wasn’t always the case. I had a wife once. Most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She was, taken from me.” “Taken? How so if I might ask?” Viktor says, noticing he has not heard any commotion outside yet. “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Found her body after going out and searching for her. She had been shot. I’m guessing either by your people or my countrymen working for your people. She wasn’t a partisan or part of any resistance. Didn’t matter to whoever put her down. Her family left soon after.” “If it means anything, my condolences, ”Viktor says, almost sincerely. “You do accept my condolences?” Jacob nods. “Well, I’m sure we aren’t the worst people you have ever come across. Like I have heard since we’ve been here, ‘nothing worse than a German’.” Both men laugh at that. “You’d be surprised at the things that can be worse. In my case, you aren’t any more worse than the local police on their nightly round ups, which is nothing more than some drunken fools looking to beat on someone, maybe even kill them. But for you, there could be something worse than partisan activity or a full fledged resistance.” “And what could possibly be worse than that,” Viktor says, almost in a chuckle. “The men mad of dirt.” “Men made of dirt?” Viktor says in a slight confused tone. “What kind of nonsense are you spewing?” “It isn’t nonsense, sir. I’ve seen them roam about the land. They give me no trouble. But I’ve found they aren’t fond of most people.” Viktor looks confused and Jacob sees it. “Let me explain. When war first broke out many families were displaced. People over time were being shot for one reason or another. Wife included. Then came the stories of the mass killings. This of course put people in a panic. Lots of families fled from here. Some left something behind.” Viktor begins to step towards Jacob when he hears his men start to yell and shoot. He goes outside and walks around the house. He makes out his men shooting into the surrounding woods, seemingly at random. He walks into the clearing his men are in. A loud, hard crash come from behind him. Drawing his pistol, he goes to towards the sound. He is shocked as he comes upon the vehicle they came in, destroyed. The entire hood is pushed into the engine, itself beneath the vehicle. Hesitantly backing up, he makes his way back inside the home. Jacob can see both shock and fear on Viktor’s face and Viktor raises the pistol at him. "What is going on? Who are my men shooting at out there? What happened to the vehicle?" Viktor demands. He had hoped to have authority in his voice when he spoke. It came out little more than a frightened, dry crackle. "The men made of dirt," Jacob replies in a slightly exhausted voice. "They roam the lands around here." "Why?" Viktors says in a whispered sigh. "Because they know you'll come. You people and your ilk are always looking for people, looking for some excuse to kill. They expect you to come. They will do to you people what you've been doing ever since you have occupied my country." Viktor looks at him with an almost sad expression. "And what is that?" Jacob looks him dead in the eyes. "Slaughter you." Viktor comes to the sudden realization that the shooting has stopped. Tense silence fills the air. He goes back outside around the house, where he is greeted by an empty field. Viktor backs up, eventually to where Jacob can see him from the doorway. "Sir," Jacob calls out to him. Viktor turns his head in Jacobs direction. "It's been a pleasure, really. Auf wiedersehen." Two large, grainy clay hands grab Viktors head from behind and lift him in the air. The thing then walks towards the clearing, where another dirt like giant man awaits. Viktor starts screaming, violently kicking and thrashing in the air in a bid to get free. He starts firing his pistol at the dirt man waiting for him, his bullets having no affect on it. The dirt man holding Viktor begins to squeeze his head. Intense pain and pressure fill Viktors head as he finally finds himself in front of the other one. The dirt man grabs Viktors waist. Jacob turns around to go back in the house as Viktors pain filled screams fill the air, getting hearing tearing flesh and breaking bone in what he could only imagine was the Sturmbannfuhrer's head being separated from his body. Jacob stands in the middle of his room, listening to the silence, before he notices one of the dirt men standing outside his front door. He walks up to it, placing his hand on its blood soaked chest. "Go, clear out that mess," he says with a weary smile. "More will come soon enough. They always send more."